This week's news on Pakistan Cricket.
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Pakistan celebrates series whitewash
6 FebThe Australian
WINNING captain Misbah-ul Haq said his team's 3-0 routing of world number one England sends a strong message to the cricketing world. -
Swann: Pakistan's lead is not too big
5 Febwww.guardian.co.uk - sport
• Spinner optimistic of chasing down target of 324
• 'It may look like a mountain to climb but we are due a score'At the end of yet another topsy-turvy day Graeme Swann was typically optimistic about England's chances of victory in the final Test, even though they were set a formidable target of 324.
"I don't believe they have an unassailable lead. If we had to chase 500 that would be well-nigh impossible but something around 320 is gettable," said Swann despite England's botched attempts to score runs in this series. "On current form it may look like a mountain to climb but we are due a score and we have some batsmen with a point to prove."
At one point the target was likely to be beyond 500 but Pakistan lost their last seven wickets for 34 runs. "That was just rewards for our perseverance," said Swann, whereupon he was bombarded with questions about the excellence of Monty Panesar, which may not be his ideal scenario at a press conference.
"Monty bowled very well. In fact all four of us did," said Swann before elaborating on England's new bowling attack. "I wanted two spinners into the side; it makes it easier to get into a rhythm and I like the fact I don't have to do so much bowling." Does he really? "I have had to wait my turn because Pakistan are riddled with right-handers, which does not play into my court. Last time we played them they had six or seven," he added wistfully.
Swann acknowledged the excellence of the two Pakistan centurions, Azhar Ali and Younus Khan, who scored 284 of the 365 runs that the hosts managed in their second innings. "They are decent players of spin," he said. "Younus took the attack to the bowlers and that must be his best innings for a long time." But playing the eternal optimist Swann added that their partnership "was probably the worst thing they could have done because they have shown us how to play against spinners on that track".
"This is an exceptional pitch, which has flattened out. It is not turning much. Just the odd ball goes. That fills us with hope," – as did a sedate start to England's innings from Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook.
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Azhar Ali defies England with solid old-fashioned virtues | Vic Marks
5 Febwww.guardian.co.uk - sport
As wickets tumbled around him Azhar just kept on going, his 157 coming from 442 balls
A measure of the understated brilliance of Azhar Ali's innings came with the afternoon tumble of wickets. Where would Pakistan, who contrived to lose their last seven batsmen for 34 runs, have been without him?
The Englishmen must have looked on and marvelled. Forward he came against the spinners, his nose over the splice of his bat and every time he seemed to middle the ball. Simple except that the only other player in the series to be able to do this convincingly for any period of time, has been Younus Khan, his fellow centurion.
Azhar demonstrated that it is possible to bat on these surfaces without being overcome by DRS paranoia, a nasty affliction, which is showing signs of becoming infectious in these parts. Old-fashioned virtues would not be undermined by modern-day technology.
Azhar has a forward defensive stroke to satisfy Geoffrey Boycott and he used it frequently. Having assessed the line and length of the ball he takes a decisive, positive step down the wicket. Against the spinners his pad is an unnecessary adornment.
He has some other shots but he hid them from view for much of the day. It was more important for his team to grind England down. Moreover, it is difficult for any batsman to change tempo in mid-innings. Younus Khan, a special player, managed that on Saturday. But Azhar just kept going, which meant that until the flurry of wickets we admired him but our pulses were rarely racing.
Especially during his 87-run partnership with Misbah-ul-Haq when neither wickets nor boundaries seemed imminent, there was time for the mind to wander. We counted a few blessings. Every day in the UAE might have been like this – with batsmen blunting perspiring bowlers on sluggish tracks.
In fact we have been constantly entertained; the pitches have offered more than expected; the bowling has been excellent and – I'll mention this only once – the DRS has kept the game moving nicely. But eyelids drooped briefly during that Azhar/Misbah partnership.
Distractions were required. Who has batted more slowly for Pakistan? Well, the obvious answer was bestriding the corridors of the pavilion. Mudassar Nazar, now a coach at the global Academy down the road, was in attendance on Sunday . No doubt he marvelled at Azhar's efforts.
Now Mudassar really could crawl at the crease. In Lahore in 1977 he faced 449 balls against England, many of which were propelled by the chairman of selectors, Geoff Miller, who has some thinking to do as a result of this tour. Mudassar scored 114 runs, an innings which merely ensured the first of three very dull draws in Pakistan.
In Dubai Azhar faced 442 balls, the last of which ended in the hands of Alastair Cook at forward short- leg, for his 157 runs. So, while his progress had been laborious by 21st‑century standards, he had raced along compared to Mudassar. One further critical difference: Mudassar's innings only guaranteed the avoidance of defeat. Azhar's was likely to ensure victory.
The Pakistan collapse was triggered by Misbah's dismissal by Monty Panesar. He was, of course, lbw, which is how Panesar takes most of his wickets out here. It is also how Misbah has been dismissed every time in this series. The "captain's decision", which was always "not out" since he was the man who marked the umpire's card, has become a thing of the past. Thus Misbah was lbw for the fifth time in succession. And before the collapse really gained momentum there was time to establish that he is only the seventh man in Test history to endure this fate. A minor consolation for him is that he finds himself in some very good company – alongside Basil Butcher, Inzamam-ul-Haq and Sachin Tendulkar.
Then the time for lists was over. Suddenly, when they were not bowling to Azhar, England's spinners were lethal. The tireless Panesar was in the groove, still fizzing the ball down in his 50th over and Graeme Swann was back in artful dodger mode. He had not bowled particularly well in this innings but he picked a few pockets late on to rescue his figures.
At least England finally had a victory target. The draw was out of the question since there is not much rain about. Anything is possible in Dubai; look at some of the architecture. But the target of 324 is as tall as some of those skyscraper monstrosities, thanks to Azhar Ali.
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Pakistan v England - day three live! | Rob Bagchi and Rob Smyth
5 Febwww.guardian.co.uk - sport
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• Click here for the latest scoreboardRob will be here from around 5.30am so until then why not read the day two report?
History tells us that Test cricket teams dismissed for a double-figure score in the first innings of the match very rarely go on to win. The last time this happened was in 1907 at Headingley when England, all out for 76 at the start, defeated South Africa. But history is an unreliable cove.
By the end of the second day's play in Dubai, Pakistan, bowled out for 99 in their first innings, were nonetheless in charge of the third Test. After another flurry of wickets during Saturday's morning session, the game adopted the pattern expected before the series but seldom experienced.
From lunch onwards batting became a serene experience, bowling a trial. At the close Pakistan, luxuriating on 222 for two, led by 180 runs.
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Why all the controversy over DRS during Pakistan-England Test series?
4 Febwww.guardian.co.uk - sport
• There have been 37 lbws, a record for a three-match series
• Pietersen disputed his dismissal but Broad favours DRSWhat is all the fuss about DRS?
DRS – players usually drop the U for umpire – stands for the decision review system, but this may be remembered as the decision review series: there have been 37 lbws, a record for a three-match series and six short of the record for a six-match series. A number of batsmen have been unhappy at being given out to balls that were barely kissing the stumps.
Such as Kevin Pietersen on Friday?
Yes. Pietersen was chuntering away to Andy Flower on the England balcony for some time after his dismissal by Abdur Rehman. He reviewed the lbw decision, but Hawk‑Eye indicated the ball was just shaving the leg bail, meaning the on-field decision stayed.
If the ball was hitting the stumps, why was Pietersen aggrieved?
He seemed to think the umpire was guessing, and there is an increasing sense that the old maxim – that the benefit of any doubt should go to the batsmen – is dying as DRS broadens both the minds of umpires and their perception of how wide and tall the stumps are.
Yet Stuart Broad defended DRS on Twitter on Friday night?
He did. He said "Players careers and whole Tests can rely on decisions, so surely u want a right decision? Too much pressure and money relying on human error now. Works in tennis, rugby, NFL, football crying out for it."
But yesterday he was DRSed himself
Yes, he was given out lbw on review, having originally been not out. Broad was a long way forward, but whereas in the World Cup you could be given not out if you were more than 2.5 metres down the pitch, you now have to be three metres.
Is there an easy solution for batsmen?
Use only the bat and not the pad, then DRS becomes an irrelevance, as Azhar Ali and Younus Khan showed. But it is difficult to teach an old batsman new tricks.
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Pakistan v England third Test: day two – in pictures
4 Febwww.guardian.co.uk - sport
The best images from the second day of the second Test at the Dubai International cricket stadium where England will try England to build on day one's slender lead.
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Pakistan v England – day two live! | Andy Bull and Rob Smyth
4 Febwww.guardian.co.uk - sport
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• And email your thoughts to andy.bull@guardian.co.ukMorning. Andy will be here from 5.30am. Until then why not read Mike Selvey's day one report?
Say what you like about the umpire decision review system (and many do), it certainly moves the game on these days. Wickets tumbled here, 16 of them, and the lbw count rose ever higher like a stock exchange bull market: a further nine on Friday to go with the 26 already accumulated to the umpires' fickle finger in the first two Tests. The third umpire was the busiest man in the ground so thick and fast did appeals and reviews come: at this rate UDRS is a shoo-in for man of the series.
By the close, England held an advantage but, at 104 for six in response to Pakistan's 99 all out, it was a most tenuous one on a first day that appeared to get ever more frenetic as it wore on and which, had it been a county match, would have had the pitch inspector scurrying down the motorway.
When Misbah-ul-Haq made the decision to bat first on a pitch said to be drier than the last one here on which England were dismissed cheaply on the first day, he would not have foreseen the movement and occasional bounce that Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson managed for England. By lunch, his team were floundering at 57 for seven and Broad, bowling with what is now becoming habitual brilliance, had come perilously close to becoming the first Englishman since SF Barnes almost a century ago to take five wickets before lunch on the opening day of a Test. An hour and a quarter later, Anderson cleaned out Umar Gul and Pakistan were all out, the fourth time in the past 12 innings England have dismissed them in double figures, Broad taking four for 36, Anderson, who began the slide in the first over, three for 35, and Monty Panesar two for 25.
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Jimmy Anderson: 'It must be good to watch but it's nerve-racking'
3 Febwww.guardian.co.uk - sport
• It's been a battle with the bat against Pakistan, says bowler
• England man talks of decision review system's dramaAfter 16 wickets fell in the day Jimmy Anderson is prepared for another fraught Test match. Even though England, with Stuart Broad and Anderson to the fore, sharing seven wickets, managed to bowl Pakistan out for 99, the game could still go either way. At the close England led by five runs with four wickets in hand.
"It must be good to watch; it is nerve-racking to play in," said Anderson on a day when the third umpire, a relative newcomer from Bengal, SK Tarapore, was as busy as a traffic policeman in Kolkata. "We were delighted with the way we started. But it has been a battle with the bat," said Anderson but he could neither condemn nor explain the problems of England's middle order, which has now mustered 141 runs in 15 innings in this series.
It was a day frequently punctuated by reviews. Umpire Tarapore had to oversee eight of them, some of which were far from straightforward. A more experienced umpire, Simon Taufel, was busy in the middle and occasionally red-faced since three of his decisions were overturned.
But there were no complaints from Pakistan's coach, Mohsin Khan, or Anderson about the umpires decision review system. "They get more decisions right in the end," said Anderson, "and there is more drama for the spectator. It is not so nice when you are out there waiting for the outcome."
Anderson took three for 35 as Pakistan were bundled for 99 in 44.1 overs. "There was a little bit of movement for the seamers," he said, "but not a huge amount." But he was also kept busy at the close of play. He ended the day at the crease as the nightwatchman, despite expressing mock-horror that we did not think he was batting at number eight on merit. "My job in the morning is to hang around and play for Straussy [the England captain was unbeaten on 41 overnight]. It was the right decision to have a nightwatchman and to keep [Graeme] Swann and Broad in the tent for tomorrow." Anderson hinted that Broad and Swann would be swinging the bat as they did in Abu Dhabi.
Anderson looked as comfortable as some of the English batsmen, who are showing all the signs of being tormented by the Pakistan spinners (in the case of Ian Bell and Eoin Morgan) and the UDRS (Kevin Pietersen). Anderson may be a tail-ender but his observations of batting on these low-bouncing pitches, where the DRS is so prominent, were apposite. "You don't think too much about it and you don't change the way you play. If you start thinking about DRS you can forget to watch the ball coming down. That is not the way to go."
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England's Strangulators find gameplan is left spinning by Pakistan | Barney Ronay
3 Febwww.guardian.co.uk - sport
Forget the batsmen's turmoil against the spinners. Perhaps England just aren't as good as they have been led to believe
There has been a neatly compartmentalised response to England's Test series defeat by Pakistan. In the past there would have been much grandiloquent handwringing over such an implosion, a sense of a team debauched by the sullen pie-cramming mediocrities of county cricket: weak‑chinned, crooked-batted, infused with a degree of effeteness that can only be staunched by the ritualistic humiliation of John Crawley, or – at a push – by making Graeme Hick's lower lip wobble with self-loathing beneath his drooping wraparounds.
Things have been different this time around. Even Andrew Strauss, who, at the wicket, is increasingly reminiscent of some grand white-haired patriarch still being wheeled out to the cinema so he can sit uncomprehendingly through the car chases and the people talking too fast before eventually falling asleep in his bath chair, has largely escaped criticism. Instead, more profound and exculpatory excuses have been proffered. In fact there has been just the one. England can't play spin. This is the verdict. Spin: they just can't play it. I can't play spin. You can't play spin. The boy Morgs can't play spin. Such has been the clarion call of England's frazzled retreat in the Gulf, occasionally glossed with the proviso that England can't play spin "in Asian conditions", an ineptitude guarantee of such mathematical certainty it is perhaps best expressed as something like spin + (conditions x Asian) = (England - being able to play it).
But, still, you have to wonder. For all its apparent certainty, this is still a flabby proposition. For a start the notion that England just can't play spin rather demeans the efforts of Pakistan, whose series win is apparently no more than an inevitable by-product of simply bowling spin and concocting home conditions in the citadel to plastic westernism that is the United Arab Emirates. Perhaps, given this cultural inevitability, it is even a little racist of Pakistan to have bowled spin at England so ruthlessly.
Mainly, though, it is clearly not the whole truth. Stuart Broad can be excused due to the fact that batting on these low bouncing pitches he resembles a man attempting to swish a cloud of midges from his ankles with a walking stick. But the rest of them can play spin, or could play spin, or might play spin, just as England did a decade ago when Duncan Fletcher micromanaged spin-heavy Test victories in Pakistan and Sri Lanka, his batsmen remaining loose and limber and groovily mobile at the crease, where the current lot seem intent instead on flinching and nudging and flexing like constipated bodybuilders.
Perhaps England are simply a team with too many half-realised plans. "I just haven't been in there long enough to put my gameplan to the test," Ian Bell explained this week, albeit it may not be too far-fetched to suggest that in future Bell's gameplan be modified to include, right at the beginning, a bit that says "stay in long enough to effect gameplan"; or even that "stay in a bit longer" may be enough of a gameplan in itself. And mainly the debate has centred on grander philosophical change. Traditionally, there have been two ways for an Englishman to be good at playing spin. You can either be ferrety and intense in the manner of Graeme Thorpe: unfurling the cheeky single, affecting a sodden white headband, and generally giving off a sense of having "gone native" out there, like some prairie huntsman barking out commands in pidgin Cherokee. Or you can be bullishly aggressive, just as Mike Gatting would hurl himself at some poor unsuspecting off-spinner, advancing at a crazed rectangular gallop like a drinks fridge sent bouncing down the communal staircase.
This notion of aggression and invention is perhaps key as it goes to the heart of how England have gone about succeeding of late. This is a team blessed with great attritional powers in both bowling and batting. At their best England attack the opposition like a disquieting weather front, or an insidious head cold, a process of worrying and wearing down designed to tweezer apart the fault lines in an opposition. If you had to give them a nickname it would not be the Invincibles or the Entertainers, but the Unavoidables or the Strangulators or Strauss's Chafing Nuisances.
It is when something more penetrative is required, the sword rather than the shield, that England struggle, like a boa constrictor roused into seeking a decisive knockout punch only to look down and realise it doesn't have any arms. This seems to be the current flaw. England are not vulnerable to spin bowling so much as they are vulnerable to unrelentingly accurate bowling, and to any team that doesn't crack first in the waiting game. Perhaps the mass trumpeting over the International Cricket Council's world No1 baton, combined with the enduring awe at the spectacle of Andy Flower encamped in his plastic seating area like a malevolent carved wooden woodpecker, has blurred the ability to assess a developing team. England can play spin. They have simply prepared inadequately. And they are not yet as good as they have been led to believe. Which is still a far more interesting state of affairs than the shrugging dead end of "can't play spin", and a pointer to a fascinating Asian winter.
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England bowlers find Pakistan wickets fall with 2 x 2 as well as 3 x 1 | Vic Marks
3 Febwww.guardian.co.uk - sport
With two spinners and only two seamers bowling Pakistan out for 99, England may be able to record their first victory while fielding both Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann
Two weeks ago we would have concluded with absolute certainty "game over" before studying the airline schedules. But the batting of Andrew Strauss's team has been so fragile in this series that the more cautious onlooker would only concede that bowling Pakistan out for 99 "gives England the edge".
In fact no side have won, having been bowled out for a double-figure score in the first innings of a Test, since England were dismissed by South Africa for 76 at Headingley in 1907.
And there was some weather about during that game. Unless there is weather about in Dubai, where a storm of sand seems far more likely than rain, England may be able to record their first victory while fielding their two-spinner combo of Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann in the sixth Test that this pair have played together. This would represent some good news before the trip to Sri Lanka, where England will probably want to play two spinners.
On Friday morning with the wickets tumbling to what now feels very much like the old firm of Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad, both of whom have been superb on this tour, I received the observation (and it can be hard to identify irony in a text message) that England "should have picked three seamers".
The ball was darting around for England's seamers it is true. Also beyond debate was the fact that Pakistan were soon bowled out for 99 and that three of their batsmen were dismissed by spinners. We will judge whether Strauss opted for the best possible balance of attack at the end of the match.
What is certain is that England – after the Test in Abu Dhabi and their performance here on Friday – are surprisingly comfortable with the new bowling combination. After the second Test Jimmy Anderson said: "One of the beauties of the last game [and there were not many] is that we discovered that we can bowl 2 x 2 [with two seamers and two spinners]. We have never done it before, but the seamers enjoyed it. Our spells were rarer but longer. We knew 3 x 1 worked. But now we know 2 x 2 can as well."
Of course the system will be undermined if a fast bowler has a bad day or becomes injured. There is no cover. But at the moment both Anderson and Broad are looking utterly reliable.
Both appear to relish extra responsibilities; both are cruising up to the wicket on automatic pilot, their rhythm so intact that bowling seems an effortless process. And both look as fit as fleas. When they are bowling like this, right at the top of their games, the comparisons of Broad with Glenn McGrath do not sound so daft; nor do those of Anderson with Richard Hadlee.
For the system to work the spinners have to be reliable as well. Swann was perfection on Friday since all six balls he delivered were highly respectable ones. It was almost too good to be true. Strauss brought him on to bowl at a left-hander, Abdur Rehman, who holed out limply, whereupon Swann was removed from the attack and dispatched to the outfield.
He is now one of the senior citizens in this team – only Strauss is older – and he could later be seen moving somewhat gingerly at long-off, a fact he must have been eager to conceal from any Indian Premier League onlookers considering bidding for him (though perhaps they don't watch Test cricket). On Saturday Swann is up for auction in Bengaluru, reserve price $400,000, so this was not the time for too many queries about his durability or fleet-footedness. He is however a spring chicken compared to Shane Warne, Stuart MacGill and Brad Hogg, the new Twenty20 specialists.
As in Abu Dhabi Panesar did the bulk of the work by the England spinners, snaring two more lbws. He did not turn the ball much but he allowed few liberties, just as he does when he bowls up the hill at Hove for hours on end in support of Sussex's seamers.
The umpire decision review system has transformed the career prospects of the orthodox finger spinner. Left-armers, swift through the air such as Panesar and Rehman, are prospering especially on low-bouncing pitches. They bowl now to hit the pad rather than find the outside edge. Every team should have one.
Batsmen have yet to find a full-proof solution. Kevin Pietersen, the 34th lbw victim in these Tests, a record for a three-match series, surpassing the one set in the 1992-93 meeting of West Indies and Pakistan in the Caribbean, was clearly exasperated when he was given leg before to a delivery from Rehman that barely turned at all. There is a secret solution to avoid the vagaries of the UDRS: to hit the ball with the bat.
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